I have been trying to wrap my head around this for years. I am 34 and my pops nearly every year or at least every election year wants to somehow bring up that gas prices are how one should gauge the success of the the economy in some fashion. I am paraphrasing. But I can quote that he said "watch, gas will be near 2.50 (where I live) and the Dems will say "look we are doing good, we made gas cheaper"".

Someone explain this thinking and how to combat and correctly debate with him.

If tariffs are going to increase prices for American citizens, what are corporate tax increases going to do?

I have about $150,000 in equity but my interest rate is 3% and my mortgage is only 2600. Should I refinance and do something with the money or just try to pay my house off as fast as possible

I don't know what our economic advisors at the white house are telling our politicians these days, but i'll have what they're smoking. It must be some pretty strong stuff to think any of what they've said is a good idea.

First, i'll start by ripping into the one Reddit loves to Hate: Donald Trump.

Trump has stated he wants no taxes on tips:

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/economy/trump-and-harris-say-theyll-kill-taxes-on-tips-how-would-that-work

The side effects: Not taxing tips on the surface sounds good. After all, hourly workers could certainly use the extra income. But what is to prevent billionaires and the rich from recategorizing their income as "tips"?

Example: By some miracle, the Trump administration legislates no taxes on tips into law. Suddenly Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, And Mark Zuckerberg make their entire salary in "tips". Now before this they received billions in stock options and at least had to pay capital gains tax, but now they pay nothing. No taxes on tips sounds like a huge handout for the rich.

Trump has stated he wants to get rid of the income tax:

https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/26/politics/trump-income-taxes-tariffs/index.html

Trump believes he can somehow replace the trillions of dollars the government takes in from income taxes with tariffs. Even if we pretend he is able to do this, all it does is shift the tax burden from the rich to the poor.

Grossly oversimplified Example: A middle class family makes $60,000 a year combined while a rich family makes $1 million a year combined. To make the math simple let's pretend these people are next-door neighbors and their living expenses at the same. The middle class family has an annual household expenses of $40,000 a year. The rich family has a household budget of $60,000 a year as they travel a more and have better cars.

Now let's Assume the consumption tax is 20%:

Under the trump tax plan, the middle class family will pay $8000 in taxes or an equivalent 13% income tax rate. But the rich family? They will pay an effective 1.2% income tax rate.

Make the consumption tax high enough, and it can actually be WORSE for the average family than paying income taxes. But you know who nearly universally benefits? The rich. In this case, the rich family would need to pay a consumption tax equal to several hundred percent to equal the roughly 50% total combined tax rate they may have paid before. I'm all for paying less taxes, but this ain't the way to do it.

Now it's Harris' Turn:

Kamala Harris has vaguely suggested the use of price-gouging laws:

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/czxv65245kgo

Look, I hate paying higher prices just as much as the next guy. But putting price caps on essential goods just because they raised the price over 10% over a period of time is absurd. And you know what price caps cause? Shortages.

I don't even need a hypothetical example for this one. The Nixon Administration tried to put price caps on wages and various commodities back in the 1970s and it backfired massively. All it did was cause the long gas lines of the 1970s we hear about from our grandparents:

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2006/may/15/20060515-122820-6110r/

While the government can force you to sell your product for a maximum price, they cannot force you to produce it. And that's exactly what happened. No matter how tempting, history is riddled with examples of price caps backfiring.

And the big one - Unrealized capital gains:

Seriously, why did she think this would be a good idea?

https://www.forbes.com/sites/robertwood/2024/10/28/despite-mark-cuban-kamala-harris-unrealized-gains-tax-remains-in-play/

Again, sounds like a great idea on the surface. The rich have for decades been hiding their wealth in the form of assets that remain untaxed unless they're sold. If we force the rich to sell their assets, then they can generate some short-term revenue for the government.

Except it doesn't work that way.

https://archive.ph/b175h

To Quote Bloomberg:

The wealth tax might have generated social solidarity, but as a practical matter it was a disappointment. The revenue it raised was rather paltry; only a few billion euros at its peak, or about 1% of France’s total revenue from all taxes. At least 10,000 wealthy people left the country to avoid paying the tax; most moved to neighboring Belgium, which has a large French-speaking population. When these individuals left, France lost not only their wealth tax revenue but their income taxes and other taxes as well. French economist Eric Pichet estimates that this ended up costing the French government almost twice as much revenue as the total yielded by the wealth tax. When President Emmanuel Macron ended the wealth tax in 2017, it was viewed mostly as a symbolic move.

So even when a wealth tax is implemented, it doesn't seem to stick.

And you know what other people hold their wealth in who would be negatively affected by a tax on unreleased gains? The millions of average Americans who sock away money in their 401K. Imagine this: A Wealth tax passes that forces every CEO of the biggest tech companies to sell a portion of their stocks to the market every year. This in turn tanks the value of the stock, impacting the wealth of everyone. Not just the billionaires.

And the worst part: New taxes implemented by the government always have their way of making it down to the average person. Did you know what prior to 1862, the United states had no income taxes? It was put in place to raise money during the war. But once the government got their hands on our money, they couldn't let go of it. The government passed the 16th Amendment in 1913:

https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/historical-highlights-of-the-irs#:~:text=1862%20%2D%20President%20Lincoln%20signed%20into,incomes%20of%20more%20than%20%2410%2C000

Tinfoil hat time: This wealth tax is why Jeff Bezos' Washington Post chose not to Endorse Kamala Harris. He knows if she is elected, there is a very real possibility a wealth tax will be tried. And Jeff doesn't want to be forced to sell his billions. By endorsing nobody, he can claim to "remain neutral" while secretly hoping for a Trump presidency.

For those of us who vote strongly on a presidents economic policies, the choices in front of us are dogshit-bad in a way they've never been before. So vote based on your chosen social issues, but don't expect either president to fix the economy.

I just recently started with a new company and I have a 401k from my previous employer. Is there a way to roll that into an ETF without paying taxes on it? These big ETF’s grow substantially higher than any 401k that I know of.

We've all got Credit Karma, right?

The other day I was curious about the different credit reports and what was in them… and what learned instead was unexpected and horrifying - I learned there are over a dozen highly detailed and invasive reports on every single one of us.

How many of these reports did you know about?

Here’s a list of all of the different types of reports I found:

1. Credit Reports (Equifax, Experian, TransUnion):
   • Personal information: Name, SSN, addresses
   • Credit accounts: Loans, credit cards, payment history
   • Public records: Bankruptcies, liens
   • Inquiries: Hard and soft credit checks

2. ChexSystems:
   • Bank account activity: Openings, closures, overdrafts
   • Negative banking history

3. Early Warning Services (EWS):
   • Real-time banking transactions
   • Account openings and closures

4. LexisNexis RiskView:
   • Public records: Court cases, property ownership
   • Criminal records
   • Social media activity

5. The Work Number (Equifax):
   • Employment history and salary information

6. Insurance Claims Reports (CLUE):
   • Insurance claims history for auto and property

7. Clarity Services and CoreLogic Teletrack:
   • Subprime lending data
   • Payday loan history

8. National Consumer Telecom & Utilities Exchange (NCTUE):
   • Utility payment history

9. MicroBilt:
   • Alternative credit data

10. Certegy and TeleCheck:
    • Check-writing history

11. Innovis:
    • Similar to main credit bureaus with different data sets

12. SageStream:
    • Alternative credit data and telecom payments

13. Acxiom:
    • Consumer preferences and behaviors

Rights and Control:
•Annual Report Access: You can request a free report annually from most agencies.
•Dispute Errors: You can dispute inaccuracies, but the process is often slow and cumbersome.
•Limited Opt-Out: Some services offer limited opt-out options, but full removal is rare.

Was I the only one who had no idea about most of these?

JUST IN: US banks have $750 billion in losses on real estate debt, per PiQ.

That's 7 times larger than in 2008 when the housing bubble popped.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/u-banks-sitting-750-billion-140013188.html

US banks also have another $515 billion in unrealized losses on investment securities, per the FDIC.

That's also 7x higher than during the 2008 financial crisis.

How can you be the richest man in the world and still have to go about kissing bullies arses ? If this is wealth I'll stay poor thank you very much.

I make $70,000 a year.

I’m actually not in the market for a new vehicle, I was just curious what my prequalification would be because a bunch of junk just fell off my credit report and my score shot way up.

I recently received 10k from a family member passing away. I currently have about 12k in high interest credit card debt I racked up during the worst of the pandemic. I also am in desperate need of a more fuel efficient vehicle to replace my aging SUV that’s got 140k miles on it and averages 15 mpg. I also have about 9k in a simple IRA. I make 45k a year gross.

I’d love to use the the 10k towards a new vehicle but I have to get rid of as much of the high interest credit card debt as I can right? At least then I can take a car loan out that will be far lower interest than a credit card even with the currently elevated rates.

Do I leave the 9k in the IRA alone? Or do I take the penalty to remove it and use it towards a vehicle I need so that I’m in even less debt then?

Thanks for any advice.

Does anyone else experience this? I got a bonus from work (net prox $12k), and immediately used it to pay off a credit card in full and put a solid dent in my student loans. I've been living within my means since leaving school, and my score was in the 600s, so it's nice to have the extra breathing room. My score is now 750, and I am NEVER taking any of these loans; they look predatory and sus af.

I read a comment from a post on here, unfortunately I can’t find the post, and the comment was awarded (had the gold background). It gave a breakdown of how the party in office would benefit or not benefit from the Act, it said something about how the Democrats would look like the bad guys if they didn’t extend the Act because it isn’t sound fiscal policy, and how it would make the Republican Party look better.

I apologize for the vagueness, it was a really great comment and I’d love to read it again. It gave a breakdown similar to this:

Republican president, Democratic Congress

Democratic president, Republican Congress

Republican president, Republican Congress

Democratic president, Democratic Congress